Reminder
by rhet0ric
Summary: Takes place shortly after the end of Breaking Dawn. Potential One Shot.


**Edward's POV.**

The sound of a body cutting through the air like a knife passed a few inches to Edward's left as his blonde brother was sent sailing by a tremendous blow to the chest. His only reaction was to his head and look on as a second figure, more bulky than the first, also blew by him in advancement on the first. Jasper and Emmett, always chomping at the bit to have an excuse to wrestle somewhere other than their beloved Esme's furnished living room, had requested the Cullen's audience for yet another brawl in the forest in the early hours of the morning. After a few pleading stares from their mother, Edward had acquiesced to join them on the condition they feed first. Now with a full stomach once again and his eyes a light, pleasant honeycomb, Edward's mind was far away from the fight before him. His thoughts traveled back to his daughter that lay sound asleep with her toy wolf clutched in her ironclad grasp back at the Cullen estate, just as he'd left her. Glancing over at his wife, he could read through her blank stare that she was preoccupied as well. Isabella turned to meet his gaze a moment later having felt his eyes upon her pale face, and exercised the control she'd attained over her mental shield to allow him to listen in on her thoughts. Sure enough, she was also pondering the notion that perhaps they should have stayed behind to watch over Renesmee. She was fretting over having left her there alone without any supervision, and Edward couldn't blame her. Though she was rapidly growing and very mature for a girl of her age, not to mention able to crush any human thief that might try to wander into their unattended home, their little girl was still young. Reaching out to wind his arm around her waist and pull her close, Edward felt Bella relax into his side and the tenor to her thoughts turn tranquil as the "rubber band" as she called it stretched back into place, her mind private once again. He quickly shook the slight agitation it caused him to be blocked out - he cherished Bella's thoughts more than any others, having been inaccessible to him for such a long, agonizing amount of time.

He didn't have long to lament over them. Soon another mind's voice, this one higher in pitch and clear as a bell rang in his ears. Edward's neck spun to take in the sight of his sister Alice as her pupils dilated and a vision formed in her mind. Watching it with her, he saw a tiny child with striking bronze curls bouncing down a long, narrow trail, her head turning this way and that as though in search of something. She could have been scavenging for Easter eggs, the innocent way she was frolicking about. All of a sudden, she came to an abrupt stop, her bottom lip quivering very slightly as if in fright. Edward could feel the furrow of his brow as he watched her spin to face a man with blazing red iris' come to an inhumanly fast halt behind her. It was as if he's materialized out of a nightmare. Her eyes were wide in recognition, and she shook visibly, paralyzed with fear. The man grabbed her with such force that her backpack fell off of her shoulders, a stuffed wolf falling out and rolling down the dirt-lined path as her screams reverberated throughout the canopy of the great Oaks…

All at once, Edward was jolted back into his own skin and Alice returned to the moment. Gripping Bella's wrist, he pulled her along as he rocketed in the opposite direction of the clearing, the vision still fresh in his mind. "_A newborn!_" he shouted over his shoulder at the others. "_He's got Nessie!_"

In an instant, he could feel the others join the pursuit, hot on his heels. His wife kept up at his side, running in a parallel path to his own. She was quick, her newborn strength still prominent, and navigated around him as they weaved through the trees like an orbiting satellite. When they were still out of earshot of the bloodthirsty newborn, Edward ran up alongside Bella to mutter a plan of attack. "About five hundred yards ahead, start to veer off to the left and come around full circle in case he tries to escape." Nodding wordlessly, they broke off moments later as she changed her course and he dug his heels into the ground, pumping his legs to move faster than even a vampire's naked eye could detect.

That's when the screaming met his ears.

It was like shards of glass puncturing his cold, steeled heart to hear her shrieks. Neither slowing in his pace nor waiting to be seen, he hurtled the assailant as his teeth were about to make contact with his daughter's pearly white skin. Edward's hand locked on the strangers throat as he pinned him to the nearest tree trunk, keeping the flailing figure at bay until his family closed in on the scene. It took every ounce of self control he could muster to keep from ripping this novice's head clear off his shoulders, but he would not allow Renesmee to see the atrocity when he did kill him. But oh, he wanted to; wanted nothing more than to end the devil that dared touch the angelic innocence as she was scooped up by Esme, with Edward listening intently as she cradled the tiny body to her chest.

Bella joined them a second later; Edward could hear her pause as she appraised their daughter and, seeing she was safe, came to stand by her husband. A patch of stray sunlight shone through the treetops and bounced off her skin like a million tiny diamonds as she rested a calming hand on his shoulder, steadying him slightly. Edward managed a deep breath, trying to exercise control once more. "_That just so happens to be my daughter you decided to snack on,_" he addressed the newborn with a voice that quaked with lingering fury. "_So you had better begin to explain who you are and what you're doing here before I rip you limb from limb._"


End file.
